African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 2 (12), pp. 672-678, December 2003

ISSN 1684-5315  © 2003 Academic Journals

Minireview

Anti-cancer effect of polysaccharides isolated from higher basidiomycetes mushrooms

A.S. Daba^l and O.U.Ezeronye^*

Division of Medical Biochemistry, Molecular Biology Laboratory, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Observatory Cape Town, South Africa.

*Corresponding author. Permanent address: Department of Biological Sciences, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, P.M.B.7267, Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria. E-mail: ezeronyeob@yahoo.com.

^lPermanent address: Mubarak City for Scientific Research, Genetic Engineering Institute, New borg El Arab,P.O.Box 21934, Alexandria,Egypt. E-mail: adaba1@yahoo.com.

Accepted 24 November 2003

Anti-tumor activity of mushroom fruit bodies and mycelial extracts evaluated using different cancer cell lines. These polysaccharide extracts showed potent antitumor activity against sarcoma 180, mammary adenocarcinoma 755, leukemia L-1210 and a host of other tumors. The antitumor activity was mainly due to indirect host mediated immunotherapeutic effect. These studies are still in progress in many laboratories and the role of the polysaccharides as immunopotentiators is especially under intense debate. The purpose of the present review is to summarize the available information in this area and to indicate the present status of the research.

Key words: Mushroom, polysaccharide, antitumor, lentinan, schizophyllan, maitake, apoptosis, and metastasis.